Sister Jeannine Gramick, SSND, who was prohibited from ministering to lesbian and gay people in July by a Vatican directive, will address the Vatican’s lengthy investigation into the last 22 years of her lesbian/gay ministry in a lecture at DePaul University Oct. 11.

Gramick’s talk, "Lesbian and Gay Ministry: Testing Vatican II Reforms," will address the process of her case and include a discussion of the implications it could have on church life.

The one-hour talk will begin at 7 p.m. in DePaul’s Concert Hall, 800 W. Belden Ave., and will be followed by a 45-minute question and answer session as well as a reception. The event is free and open to the public.

Gramick and her colleague Salvatorian Father Robert Nugent were barred permanently from pastoral work with homosexuals and are ineligible to hold office in their religious orders after the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that ambiguities and errors in their books have caused confusion among Catholics. While expressing love for the church, Gramick would not sign a document prepared by the Congregation that would signify her personal assent to the church’s teaching on homosexuality.

Gramick began her outreach to the lesbian and gay community in 1971 and the following year co-founded the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., chapters of Dignity, a national organization for lesbian and gay Catholics. In 1977 she co-founded New Ways Ministry, a social justice center working toward the reconciliation of lesbian and gay people with the Catholic Church. Gramick has co-authored several books with Nugent, in addition to writing and editing many articles on homosexuality.

Her talk is co-sponsored by DePaul’s Catholic Studies program, University Ministry and Pride DePaul, the university’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered student organization. It continues a lecture series on topics that explore the issue of homosexuality as it relates to the Catholic Church, which began in November 1998 with the visit of Thomas Gumbleton, an auxiliary bishop of the Detroit Archdiocese.

For more information, call Greg Szkarlat in University Ministry at 312/362-5896.